Re: Typing in Chinese: was Re: [Futurework] Chinese as the world language?

[William B Ward]

Keith,   Arabic does not have written vowels. They do put a short lower left to upper right slash that is the 'i', something like a comma that is the 'u' sound, and a hyphen that is the 'a' [the latter two marks are above the letters while the former is below for school children and probably muezzins [my son used to sit in from the of the TV and could do the call to prayer perfectly. He wanted to be a muezzin when he group up but was broken hearted when he found that most mosques were moving to taped calls].   Actually, I just attached a list of the characters to this email and had forgotten that stand alone letters differ slightly from the beginning, middle, and ending so there are often 4 variations [ I don't think most typewriters can do the stand alone characters. Trying to type in Arabic, even for Arabs, is a challenge. On typewriters there is an upshift and downshift key to get the initial and terminal forms.   A Lebanese physician did develop a printing alphabet that resulted in a single figure for each letter but it hasn't caught on in some 30 years. I believe it has to do with the feeling that it was moving the language of the Qur'an away from its roots.   Also, in a different post, re:           Chinese - It has lost all the appendages that other languages still have -- conjugations,         declensions, irregular verbs, subjunctives, ablatives, and so on -- nightmares that         plagues learners of most other languages.   to make Hebrew masterable by European Jews coming to Israel, a lot of the complex grammar was simplified as in Chinese above. This is the Hebrew which is taught in Ulpans. Palestinian staff of mine picked it up in a snap since Hebrew and Arabic are so similar.   Bill       On Sat, 23 Aug 2003 06:57:55 +0100 Keith Hudson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Hi Bill, > > At 19:28 22/08/2003 -0400, Bill Ward wrote: > >The characteristics below make [Chinese] very computer friendly > unlike Arabic > >which has three different forms of each letter -- beginning, > middle, and > >end of word. > >Bill > > > >On Fri, 22 Aug 2003 20:31:55 +0100 Keith Hudson > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >writes: > >There are no words of more than one syllable and every word has > only one > >form. It proceeds by means of subject and predicate -- that's all > -- and > >explicated by means of metaphors. > > Fascinating -- what you say about Arabic. I didn't know that. But I > must > say that I love the Arabic calligraphy in its different variations. > But I > made a discovery of my own concerning written Arabic when I was in > Istanbul > some three or four years ago. In the Blue Dome I heard the voice of > a > muezzin reciting the Qoran and then came across him in an alcove > kneeling > in front of his script and microphone. He was reciting it in a > beautiful > way (he had the most marvellous tenor voice) and I ventured to have > a look > at his script when he'd finished. I noticed some interesting dashes > at > high, medium and low levels adjacent to the words here and there and > asked > him about these (we conversed in sign language, of course, being > mutually > incomprehensible!) which I suspected were simple intonation marks. > He > confirmed this, and he gave me a master class there and then! It was > only > months later that the penny dropped and I realised that these marks > were > very similar to the pitch marks (neumes) of the music of the Jewish > Cantors > and the earliest liturgical music of the Christian church. This > later > became formalised in the notation book written by Englishman, Robert > de > Handlo, in the 14th century (after whom I named my music publishing > > business). So, we not only have the Islamic scholars to thank for > having > translated the ancient Greek writers and then reintroducing them > into the > West which helped to stimulate the Renaissance, but also the Islamic > > muezzins who formulated the beginnings of notated music that we use > today. > > But thinking of the beautiful calligraphy of Arabic, this reminds me > of the > equally beautiful Chinese and Japanese calligraphy and a putative > commercial venture many years ago when I attempted to introduce the > > Japanese to a new keyboard. In a purely aesthetic way I had become > interested one week-end in the graphical structure of Japanese and > Chinese > ideograms and I impulsively wrote to Toshiba (I seem to remember it > was > this firm) with an idea of the way they could be typed. I reckoned > that the > many thousands of Japanese, Korean and Chinese ideograms could be > simply, > albeit crudely, represented on a 8 x 8 grid and 'played' in chordal > fashion > by the left and right hands on a piano-like keyboard. I sent off my > letter > with the usual sealed envelope inside it containing the idea -- and > then > promptly forgot all about it!  Some months later I received a reply > to say > they had considered it carefully but for various reasons declined > the idea. > I was actually invited to meet the writer of the letter, their > Research > Director, who was visiting Manchester the following month and he > would > explain more if I needed to hear. But I didn't bother. The prospect > of > travelling to dirty, grimey Manchester (as it was in those days) > didn't > appeal to me. > > Keith Hudson > Keith Hudson, 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath, England, > <www.evolutionary-economics.org> > > >

Arabic consonants.doc
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